Opioid Epidemics Toll: Surging Overdoses and Declining U.S. Life Expectancy

Abstract

Over-prescription of Opioid Drug in the United States Background Statement on Current Landscape of the Problem Over-prescription of opioid enhances its over-dose and addiction among many Americans making it a controversial issue that is closely tied to the ongoing fall in U.S life expectancy. Over-prescription happen when one is given a drug or treatment in greater amounts or more often than necessary. It may also imply to the act of being given medicines that one no longer need or want and such medicines may pose greater harm than good to the victim. While arguing over-prescription from opioid overdose point of view, it is unfortunate that although this opioid epidemic claims many lives of Americans of all ages over years, those between 35 and 44 years are greatly affected with 71% of all opioid-related deaths occurring between the ages of 25 to 54 years (Judd et al., 2023). Based on their research on “The opioid epidemic: a review of the contributing factors, negative consequences, and best practices” these authors further confirm that of such deaths, male suffer the most taking seven out of every ten deaths. So one may wish to understand what then fosters opioid overdose dose amongst Americans and according to these authors, some of the triggers ranges from over-prescribing opiates and opioids, less education, divorce or being unmarried, unemployment and the hardships of living in rural regions of the United States (Judd et al., 2023). It pains to confirm that since opioid became broadly available in the 90s; tracking of its associated deaths began receiving attention in 1999 and has reported an upward trend since then. Unfortunately, due to aforementioned triggers, the most vulnerable victims of opioid epidemic are Caucasians, Native Americans and Alaska Native as most of them are school dropouts that are jobless thus seek refuge in the cooling effects of this substance. In 2020, people with high diploma or GED accounted for 35.4% of all opioid-related deaths, school drop-outs took 23.7% opioid overdose deaths, married 42.9% opioid overdose deaths while divorced took divorced 21.3% (Judd et al., 2023). In their article “Pain management and the opioid epidemic: Balancing societal and individual benefits and risks of prescription opioid use,” Phillips, Ford & Bonnie (2017) analyzed the trends in prescription opioid use and misuse and confirmed that this trend increase sharply in the mid to late 90s. During this time, non-medical opioid use also started to increase reaching a peak of 2.7 million new users by year 2002. Just as confirmed by Judd et al. (2023) these authors also confirms that overdose mortality as the most drastic consequences of increased opioid use mostly affects males under 50 years with 76% of opioid overdose-related deaths between 2013 and 2014 taking this population while those aged between 18 and 34 tripling the rate of females falling under the same age bracket. It is imperative to note those pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs and pharmacies that distribute prescription drugs, as well as the doctors that prescribe drugs like opioid share in the blame of opioid over-prescription crisis. To this effect, one can confirm that the risk factors for over-prescription of opioid triggers its misuse and overdose enhancing high mortality rate among young and middle aged Americans below 50 years which clearly indicates the need to consider this issue as a threat to the future of Americans thus the need to implement and enforce right intervention to prevent further damages. Propose Policy Solution Altering Physician Prescription Methodology It is open that drugs like opioid since legal remains accessible through physicians. To this effect, in order to curb the effects of opioid abuse, it is wise to do it from the source. According to Judd et al. (2023), reducing the amount of opioids prescribed for postoperative recovery might not be enough in the fight against opioid over-prescription but rather ensuring a close track and standardization of opioid prescription. To this effect, there is the need to implement prescription drug monitoring programs that will track when and where an opioid prescription is filled and by whom. In such a case, any physician that offer an over-prescription can be held liable since such exposures only do more harm to the target than any good. Since prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) is not news in the United States, the need to enforce all its elements is essential as this will help assist track opioid as a controlled substance that providers prescribe. When data is collected from such programs, researchers will have created the recommended prescription values that qualified physicians may use when deciding how many opioids to prescribe to a patient and for what duration. It is also imperative to ensure that physicians offer more strategic perioperative and postoperative care to opioid users. For instance since opioid serves best in cooling the nerves, the need to decrease its quantity during surgical procedures and instead utilize non-narcotic analgesics is essential in the fight against opioid use. As...